<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;">You’ve been cranking out briefs, contracts, motions, presentations, and emails all week. As you sit down to draft yet another document, you find you can’t get more than a few sentences into your topic before your brain blanks.

</p><p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;">Not to worry. All writers get stuck from time to time. Try these six tips to get back on track. </p>

<strong> </p> </strong> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;"><strong>1. Take a break</strong><br />When you spend a lot of time looking at and thinking about your writing, you can actually get too close to it. Take a quick stroll around the block to get some fresh air, then come back to it.</p><p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;"><strong>2. Read someone else’s writing</strong><br />We’re definitely not condoning plagiarism, but reading what someone else has written exposes you to fresh ideas and styles of writing that can be a source of inspiration. </p><p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;"><strong>3. Make a list</strong><br />Organizing your thoughts and initial ideas in a simple list can be a good way to start when you’re feeling stuck. From there, you can arrange the listed items and start elaborating on each one.</p><p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;"><strong>4. Try a tune</strong><br />Listening to music can help you relax and become more inspired. Try classical, jazz, or other instrumental genres.</p><p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;"><strong>5. Ask for help</strong><br />Explain what you’re trying to write to a friend, colleague, or mentor. Then listen to their opinions and advice.</p><p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;"><strong>6. Just write</strong><br />Don’t try to plan out every single point first. Just start putting words on paper without worrying about perfect grammar or sentence structure – you can go back and fix that later.</p>

<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;">You’ve just learned what it takes to unstick yourself from writer’s block. Now, go ahead and test out those tips when you’re writing your next article for a peer-reviewed publication. What’s that? You don’t write for a peer-reviewed publication? Well, you could! </p>

<ul style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;"><li>Top Estate Planning Lessons from Recently Deceased Celebrities</li><li>The Future of Race and Policing in the Trump Era</li><li>Get the Lead Out: Legal & Regulatory Issues Associated with Lead in Water Service Lines</li><li>Writing a Winning Brief</li><li>Employment Law – The Year in Review</li><li>Dos & Don’ts from the Circuit Court Bench</li><li>Understanding the Divorce Process from A to Z</li><li>The “Risky Business” of Healthcare Law: What Every Business Lawyer Needs to Know</li></ul>

<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;">You can earn even more credits by attending the pre-conference session for 2 CLE and 2 EPR credits, plus earn 1.5 CLE credits at the opening plenary. That makes for a <strong>total of 13 CLE and 4 EPR credits</strong> available for you to earn at AMC 2017! </p><p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;">Save on your registration fee when you register by the <strong>early-bird deadline of May 15.</strong> Plus, first time member-attendees save an additional $100 off the registration fee. So don’t delay – register today! Visit <a href="http://amc.wisbar.org">amc.wisbar.org</a>.</p>

<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;">“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”</p><blockquote> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;"> - Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist </p></blockquote>

<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 10px;">Elections for Nonresident Lawyers, Government Lawyers, and Young Lawyers Division officers will be conducted electronically. To ensure that you receive your ballot to vote in the Division election on April 10, 2017, please remember the following:</p>

<ul style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 7px;"><li>Add net noreply directvote directvote noreply net as an approved sender in your inbox today. This prevents the ballot from being identified as spam.</li><li>If you belong to more than one Division, the email you receive will contain all of the ballots and candidate statements for any Division in which you are eligible to vote.</li><li>If you have placed any “holds” on email from the State Bar, you may not receive an electronic ballot. You might want to phone Customer Service to verify that your account is set up to receive your email ballot. They can be reached at 1-800-728-7788.</li></ul>

<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 10px;">NOTE: Only State Bar <strong>Divisions</strong> are handling elections electronically. If you do not open your mail, alert your assistant <u>not to discard</u> your State Bar of Wisconsin paper ballot for President-Elect, Secretary, Board of Governor and Judicial Council offices. It is clearly marked “BALLOT” on the outside of the envelope. </p><hr />

<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 4px;">Your State Bar of Wisconsin Student Associate status puts you in touch with the latest news, trends, and issues facing Wisconsin lawyers. As an associate, you have access to:</p>

<p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 6px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:8pt;"> *This offer is not available with any other discount and expires March 17, 2017. Discount cannot be applied to previous purchases, or used for renewals of subscriptions, auto-supplementation subscriptions, or Books UnBound full library subscriptions.</span></p>